Technically Speaking

It looks like the shake up at the Dow Jones is happening. CEO Richard Zannino is expected to give his resignation this afternoon (Thursday). This is being reported in Newsweek.

Dow Jones CEO Richard Zannino is expected to announce his resignation Thursday afternoon, one week before Rupert Murdoch is set to assume official control of the company and its storied Wall Street Journal, when shareholders approve his $5.6 billion offer, according to people close to the development.

Now the article goes on to say that Murdoch just couldn’t fit Zannino into their future plans. More or less…

Murdoch apparently couldn’t, or wouldn’t, carve out a role to fit the ambitions of Zannino, a former fashion industry and retailing executive. But Zannino, the first nonjournalist ever at Dow Jones’s helm, will exit with a severance package worth at least $19 million.

Technically Speaking, if I were ex-CEO Zannino - I would take the money and do what another billionaire had his mouth piece of the moment say “Shut up and know your role, jabroni!” Hey, I think you can do something useful with $19 million even if the Euro is still slamming the dollar these days.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! I found this from NYC big dog and hardest working blogger - Allen Stern of CenterNetworks - reports that there is a possibility that LinkedIn will be bought by News Corp in 2008. Great find, and glad to see TechCrunchUK reporting on something that is interesting to ponder today.

I have a lot to be thankful for this year and I hope all of my readers had a great 2007. As we wind down into the last 40 something days of the year, be sure to take a moment today and give thanks. Even though you may not celebrate the holiday, it’s good to take a moment to look back on this past year and be thankful for if nothing else - being alive!

Technically Speaking, have a great day! Thanksgiving decorations

Just found out via twitter that it appears the WSJ is going to be free (online). That is something we all have heard that was coming down, and now it appears to be closer to reality. That is a good thing, since most of the major newspapers are going that way.

It is coming down to this, if you want your site to go somewhere, you better be free for the users. You need to monetize your content in other ways. Advertising as reported here, is on an all time high. The reason why of course is the freedom that the free internet offers users.

Social networking sites are all free - the good ones with a lot of users. The new wave though that is making a rumble is the underground and private ones. Will these be able to be financially competitive with the free sites in the near future? I think they will, but the free sites will still have a larger user base.

I have always believed that the news online should be free to read, whether it’s the WSJ or the LA Times. Why the mention of social networking above in a post about the news? Well the two work hand in hand. Even MySpace realized that with it’s poorly designed news site.

The future is going to be figuring out the way to monetize your site in order to keep it free for the consumer or general user. A paid internet will not work, and I’m glad that Murdoch has seen the light.

ADELAIDE, Australia (AP) — News Corp. Chairman Rupert Murdoch said Tuesday he intends to make access to The Wall Street Journal’s Web site free, trading subscription fees for anticipated ad revenue.

Technically Speaking, twitter is great source of news and breaking information.

*Update - Do you know what Hulu actually means? Interesting post here.

Hulu, talk about stupid names! I like Clown Co. much better, but oh well - I have always said that a “name is a name” - until you market that name.

As it was just BROKE on CenterNetworks, it appears that Hulu is the new name of the News Corp and NBC universal venture.

Technically Speaking, Clown Co. was a much better name, and it already had blogosphere traction! I guess since it’s a big name venture, Hulu won’t have that much trouble catching on. I mean “Do you Hulu?” - you can send the royalty checks this way for that suggestion, and that is with one armed tied behind my back.

Om also covers it.

btw - Yes Allen - 16x world champion, Hulkamania running wild again and again.. ha!

Also covered on Mashable

Also covered on Reuters - what I don’t understand is they say:

“We just wanted a name that is short and easy to spell,” Hulu spokeswoman Christina Lee said. “We like the idea that it rhymes with itself. We wanted a fun name.”

What could be more fun than - Clown Co.????

Lastly covered on TechCrunch

Any Penn State football fans?

News Corp-Dow Jones - The board at Dow Jones approved the merger. It does look like that not everyone on the board was happy, as two members abstained, and one left early. Now I would have loved to been the fly on the wall in that room. I wonder if there were any F-bombs dropped. Doubtful, as most people in those rooms forget how to get real.

xLingo - For the language impaired such as myself, xLingo could be the ticket to helping me learn a new language. That part of brain isn’t as functional, or I never helped to grow it. When I was a child I was bi-lingual, but trying to acclimate into the America which became my new home when I was young kid, I lost touch or repressed my own culture and language skills. To this day, I can sort of understand the other language, and can slightly speak it. Kristen also covered a few other players.

Technically Speaking, I need to get to real work now. Link Blog. Sounds like it’s time to stock up on a few modern desks.

According to the Wall Street Journal, the vote is set for tomorrow (Tuesday). The original $5 Billion price is still intact, and it seems that Rupert is grinning ear to ear now. Unless something goes wrong, and it could, the deal should finally be done.

he deal still faces its biggest hurdle — getting approval from the Bancroft family, which controls 64% of Dow Jones’s voting power. Mr. Zannino has indicated to News Corp. that the family’s position on the deal is too close to call, according to a person who spoke to him.

In fact it appears that one of the key players has been searching for an alternative to selling out to News Corp. Christopher Bancroft who oversees 15% of the company’s shareholders votes is looking.

Christopher Bancroft, 55 years old, a Dow Jones director who serves as a trustee overseeing shares that account for about 15% of the company’s total shareholder votes, has spent the past several weeks approaching hedge funds, private-equity firms and others in an attempt to buy enough shares of Dow Jones to block a sale.

Technically Speaking, I think I have written like 3 posts on this merger/deal/it’s all done deal. Let’s get a move on, and get the deal done this time. I mean does Dow Jones think that $5 Billion isn’t enough? What do they think, that they deserve Facebook money? hmmm…. interesting thought there, maybe News Corp will make the move on Facebook. Before you say anything, “Never say - NEVER”.

According to this breaking article overnight out of London, it appears the deal is done. Rupert Murdoch has now added Dow Jones, or more importantly the Wall Street Journal to it’s fold of media companies.

This is a big grab for Rupert, but truly what isn’t a big grab for him and his News Corp organization? He had the foresight of a 20 something person when he saw MySpace as a big money advertising platform. He has his pulse on the media of today and yesterday. I am guessing the Mediterranean cruises were booked!

Rupert Murdoch has succeeded with his $5 billion bid for Dow Jones, owners of the Wall Street Journal, according to sources acting for the Dow Jones board. Negotiations on price and matters of principle have been completed, though some details remain to be resolved. None is regarded by either side as a deal-breaker.

The Dow board is confident that the terms of the deal will be accepted by the Bancroft family, which controls a majority of voting shares in Dow Jones, over the next few working days. A formal announcement is expected next week.

On Friday afternoon London time, Dow Jones, reacting to the first posting of this story, issued a statement saying that it was “incorrect”. When The Business contacted Dow’s corporate affairs, however, it refused to elaborate on the record.

The article says that Murdoch will have the right to hire and fire. Basically, they are now in control of what happens.

Under the terms of this agreement, News Corporation will have the ability to hire and fire the top editors and publishers (a matter on which Murdoch would not budge); but a nominally independent five-person committee will have the right of veto on these decisions.

Murdoch and Dow Jones will jointly agree the membership of this panel, which will have the power to choose its successors—a crucial concession to the Bancrofts who are sensitive to the claim that they are sacrificing the Journal’s editorial integrity by selling to Murdoch. The Bancrofts have received extensive legal advice in an attempt to satisfy themselves about the durability of the editorial safeguards.

Technically Speaking, while Rupert goes into years that most consider their retirement years, he marches on and dominates the media sphere.

Looks like Rupert Murdoch is not going to give up. It appears according to the latest from the WSJ that News Corp and Dow Jones are in negotiations once again.

Representatives of Dow Jones & Co. and News Corp. were in intense negotiations yesterday following a near breakdown in discussions over a proposal to safeguard the editorial independence of The Wall Street Journal, according to people familiar with the matter.

After a couple of weeks of relative inactivity, takeover talks heated up over the weekend and were moving quickly. The talks were characterized as constructive, but not before generating high emotions and brinksmanship on both sides. News Corp. threatened to back out of the negotiations and told Dow Jones at one point it was about to send a letter pulling out.

Technically Speaking, will the deal be done before the 4th of July? I wonder if someone is paying for expensive cruises? Doubtful, as we all know what this week is all about. iPhone.

Rupert Murdoch is who we will, God willing, be one day. He is everything that keeps people young. If he would have stuck entirely with the newspaper business years ago, there is a good chance he would have faded away. News Corp has now become a huge empire under his direction.

He has his finger on the pulse of the new media generation. There is a lesson learned here. I know there are quite a few that have embraced the internet and everything digital. There are those that will not, and for that, I will say just look at Mr. Murdoch. Fearing what you don’t understand is natural. I say, “just dive right in“, the water is quite fine.

The man is 76 years young. The article is quite long, but it’s newspaper. A great Sunday read for anyone who think they are too old to accomplish something in the online universe. Anything for that matter. He could have easily retired years ago, sailed a boat in the south Pacific, traveled the world, done whatever he wanted. He could have easily faded away into obscurity.

Mr. Murdoch chose not to do any of the above. Why you ask? Because it’s better to be alive then to go off and just die. There is a real lesson learned here, and I hope you all take the time to read all 4 pages. Once you lose your grip on the pulse of the new generation, you lose on life.

By every measure, he appears to believe he has plenty of time to get exactly what he wants. As he wrapped up the conference in Monterey last Sunday, he looked out at his employees and said: “You all think I’m too old.” Pausing for a beat, he added: “I think you’re too old.”

No, Mr. Murdoch, Rex Dixon thinks you are living life to the fullest. You may or may not finalize a deal with Dow Jones & Company, but if that falls through, you probably will just smile and buy up the next MySpace. Maybe he will devour Obvious or twitter. That folks is why he is who he is.

If I had his money, or wanted to grab something now that will generate more useful things for his empire, it would be twitter. The time is now, before everyone (mainstream advertisers) figure out what a powerful tool twitter can be. I saw a quick blurb on the use of twitterment; people are finally catching up. Waking up is more like it.

Technically Speaking, you lose site on the youth, you end up withering away into obscurity. For my musician enabled readers, here is one that I know you all know, “If it’s too loud, you’re too old!”

Al Jazeera launched their own YouTube channel, and SplashCast has it in their player (below). It was first reported by the New York Times. In regards to Marshall’s opinion, I’m with him on this one. I consider myself an open minded American, and the mainstream media in this country has a lot to be desired. Al Jazeera does cover the news well.

In regards to who does it the best - I would have to say it’s the blogosphere; the online only media. We do it faster, are more timely (see the twitter Mexico earthquake as a good example), and there are more of us. I’ll shut up now. Watch the videos:

NBC-News Corp - Now available on Comcast. Now all you Comcast customers know the reason why they didn’t want you to have true “unlimited” broadband these past few months.

Google - What me worry? Same thing Microsoft said. Same thing AT&T said decades ago. If I were Google, I’d be very careful.

Technically Speaking, that should keep you busy for now.